Who has the best hi-fi set up on Pistonheads????

[Vipers1]

jackal said:

Nice one Vipers, best of luck with the new venture ! Looks like a really nice location.

It's a shame that you don't do the Dynavector electronics as well. Someone needs to really push these properly in the UK, incredible value and knocks anything from Linn/naim into a cocked hat.

Thanks Jackal, I've got the Dynavector P75 MK111 phono stage on demo and that certainly punches way above its weight, by far my preferred phono stage

[Blue62]

I'm about to upgrade my home cinema/hi-fi set up, the current kit is around 10 years old now and has 'issues'. I wondered if anyone here has experience of the kit/set up I'm looking at:

Projector JVC 35X 2D 3D Hi-def 1080
Denon AVR 3313 Amp
Denon dbt 1713 Blu ray

The bit I'm more concerned about is cabling, to save money the installer has recommended HDMI over Cat 6, has anyone done this and if so does it impair quality against going purely HDMI? Any responses gratefully received before I spunk this years holiday budget!

[OldSkoolRS]

Blue62 said:

I'm about to upgrade my home cinema/hi-fi set up, the current kit is around 10 years old now and has 'issues'. I wondered if anyone here has experience of the kit/set up I'm looking at:

Projector JVC 35X 2D 3D Hi-def 1080
Denon AVR 3313 Amp
Denon dbt 1713 Blu ray

The bit I'm more concerned about is cabling, to save money the installer has recommended HDMI over Cat 6, has anyone done this and if so does it impair quality against going purely HDMI? Any responses gratefully received before I spunk this years holiday budget!

I've got the X35 projector (2D option, without glasses or emitter for £300 less) having upgraded from an older HD350: I can't watch 3D due to headaches (and good taste looking at many of the film choices ). I'm very happy with the upgrade and notice better blacks, the image is sharper and motion is smoother than my older model. It is also considerably brighter (even allowing for the fact that it is a new lamp, my older HD350 never measured as bright setting for setting). I have an external video processor which provides a CMS (and autocalibration using some other software) but when I measured the response before calibration it was pretty good to start with (unlike the HD350).

I'm using an Oppo BluRay player and an older, but still decent, AV processor and separate power amps by Arcam. However, I still have a Denon 3805 in my conservatory which has lasted very well, so I wouldn't hesitate to recommend Denon. No harm in getting the matching BluRay player, though I've found that for 1080/24p BluRays after calibration there is no difference in picture quality between players. Some players do have non defeatable sharpening/processing, but aside from that any gamma tweaks that the players might introduce should get adjusted out during calibration anyway.

I know of plenty of users on AVforums that have used HDMI over CAT6 cabling, so I wouldn't worry about that issue and it certainly shouldn't make any difference in terms of picture quality.

One final thing: If you get the projector calibrated, then wait until you hit at least 100 hours on the lamp so it can settle down. There can be significant drift in the first 100 hours use so an early calibration could be a waste (also for any early failure of the display if you are very unlucky). Having said that, my X35 measures virtually the same after 100 hours compared to when it was new, so the new improved lamp may have something todo with this (the previous generation had known issues with the lamps failing at 500 hours or so).

[Blue62]

Thanks Oldskool, reassuring on the cabling. Would you not bother changing the blu ray player then?

[OldSkoolRS]

Blue62 said:

Thanks Oldskool, reassuring on the cabling. Would you not bother changing the blu ray player then?

Change it for what? If you mean to buy something cheaper to help finances then IMHO you won't see any less picture quality from a £100 player with 1080/24p discs (the majority). Perhaps DVD upscaling won't be as good, but then if you want to upscale DVDs onto a projector screen I'd argue that you'd need to go much higher up the ladder: My Oppo BDP93 is pretty good at DVD upscaling (better than the JVC itself) but still not as good as my Lumagen video processor, but having said that I don't watch many DVDs at all these days.

In other words, spending more will probably not make any difference if you are mostly watching BluRays at 1080/24p (IMHO).

[jackal]

Vipers1 said:

jackal said:

Nice one Vipers, best of luck with the new venture ! Looks like a really nice location.

It's a shame that you don't do the Dynavector electronics as well. Someone needs to really push these properly in the UK, incredible value and knocks anything from Linn/naim into a cocked hat.

Thanks Jackal, I've got the Dynavector P75 MK111 phono stage on demo and that certainly punches way above its weight, by far my preferred phono stage

Yes the p75 is a bargain. I used to have the p100 which is even better inside the L300 mkii preamp which is also a wonderful pre. Well worth a trial if mr Burns has any, along with the HX100 power amp.

[Blue62]

OldSkoolRS said:

Change it for what? If you mean to buy something cheaper to help finances then IMHO you won't see any less picture quality from a £100 player with 1080/24p discs (the majority). Perhaps DVD upscaling won't be as good, but then if you want to upscale DVDs onto a projector screen I'd argue that you'd need to go much higher up the ladder: My Oppo BDP93 is pretty good at DVD upscaling (better than the JVC itself) but still not as good as my Lumagen video processor, but having said that I don't watch many DVDs at all these days.

In other words, spending more will probably not make any difference if you are mostly watching BluRays at 1080/24p (IMHO).

I've a cheapish Sony Blu Ray at the moment, in fairnesss the upgrade is partly due to 3D, but I'm not overly fussed about that, I was informed the Denon Blu ray is a worthwhile upgrade, but it's 5 times dearer than my Sony.

[OldSkoolRS]

Sorry for the further off topic.

I went from an older Sony BDPS350 to the Oppo BDP-93. The Oppo cost £500 and the Sony was £130 I think. On a near 10' wide screen there is absolutely no difference in picture quality, motion, blacks or colours when viewing 1080/24p BluRays once the display chain was calibrated (even before with a basic set up).

I wasn't expecting a picture quality improvement, so I wasn't disappointed: I bought the Oppo because it has good quality built in HD sound decoding to use with my older AV9 processor,it has subtitle shift (needed for 2.35:1 viewing with an A Lens) and it plays SACDs and DVD-A. It also has 'source direct' mode which means my video processor can do all the deinterlacing and upscaling as required as it's still better at this than even the Oppo.

If you don't want 3D you should be able to buy the X35 without the glasses or emitter which will save about £300. In this case no need to replace the Sony unless you just want to match your amp and player. If you do want 3D then you could save money and get a cheaper Sony 3D player for example, but you wouldn't lose out in terms of picture quality, just matching facias.

[JayEll]

Blue62 said:

I'm about to upgrade my home cinema/hi-fi set up, the current kit is around 10 years old now and has 'issues'. I wondered if anyone here has experience of the kit/set up I'm looking at:

Projector JVC 35X 2D 3D Hi-def 1080
Denon AVR 3313 Amp
Denon dbt 1713 Blu ray

The bit I'm more concerned about is cabling, to save money the installer has recommended HDMI over Cat 6, has anyone done this and if so does it impair quality against going purely HDMI? Any responses gratefully received before I spunk this years holiday budget!

fyi, the only reason I used Cat6 was due to the distance it had to travel, and the fact i was trying to push 3D over that distance (circa. 20 meters). I didn't want to take the risk, and so installed Cat6 plus CE Lab baluns

also fyi, I bgt a cheap Sony BR player (sub £200). projected over that distance and onto a 137" screen. No problem whatsoever. The way I see it, the tech in BR moves too fast to commit large capital to it. And all the reviews had the Sony player high on the list even compared to expensive ones. I didn't swerve the expensive stuff due to budget, it just didn't seem necessary.

[StuH]

JayELL,

Your cinema room looks absolutely superb! You must be chuffed the way it turned out. Was a complete project including building/refurb of the outbuilding?

[JayEll]

StuH said:

JayELL,

Your cinema room looks absolutely superb! You must be chuffed the way it turned out. Was a complete project including building/refurb of the outbuilding?

Thanks StuH.
I'm so chuffed bud. I've never had anything like it before. The best system prior to this was a 50" pioneer with an Arcam Solo Movie, paired with Totem 5.1 speakers. So was a massive upgrade.
The building itself was knackered, and (before we moved in) was a 2 bed bungalow that was being rented out on the land. We took it to the ground pretty much and rebuilt. New roof (to do away with the loft), re-insulated, new windows/doors (had to be custom made as it was originally a cattle shed c.100years ago). Had new steels made to reinforce everything. Budget was £50k for all works and cinema.
Cinema came in around £40k (oops). Net bill came in at £100k.

[Blue62]

JayEll said:

fyi, the only reason I used Cat6 was due to the distance it had to travel, and the fact i was trying to push 3D over that distance (circa. 20 meters). I didn't want to take the risk, and so installed Cat6 plus CE Lab baluns

also fyi, I bgt a cheap Sony BR player (sub £200). projected over that distance and onto a 137" screen. No problem whatsoever. The way I see it, the tech in BR moves too fast to commit large capital to it. And all the reviews had the Sony player high on the list even compared to expensive ones. I didn't swerve the expensive stuff due to budget, it just didn't seem necessary.

Thanks Jay, I'm sticking with Cat 6 for the same reason, the 'cinema' room is a big space, although the projected distance is around 8m, the cable run is considerably more. Really twitching on the BR player now, the installer insists that picture and sound will be better with the Denon and as I'd need to upgrade to a 3D player in any case, it's worth the extra (£600). I'm projecting onto a 16x9 screen FWIW.

[JayEll]

Blue62 said:

Thanks Jay, I'm sticking with Cat 6 for the same reason, the 'cinema' room is a big space, although the projected distance is around 8m, the cable run is considerably more. Really twitching on the BR player now, the installer insists that picture and sound will be better with the Denon and as I'd need to upgrade to a 3D player in any case, it's worth the extra (£600). I'm projecting onto a 16x9 screen FWIW.

my projected distance is around 6m, viewing around 3.5m. but the cable run was around 20m due to high ceiling, hence i went Cat6 to be safe.
with the BR, i personally don't believe the difference will be noticable, in sound or picture. Although I did the install, my mate who supplied all the kit for me was also present post install and were blown away by it. but you should go for what you want. the unit you mention doesn't sound like it's mega bucks anyway, and probably looks better than my puny Sony

[Cheib]

Vipers1 said:

jackal said:

Nice one Vipers, best of luck with the new venture ! Looks like a really nice location.

It's a shame that you don't do the Dynavector electronics as well. Someone needs to really push these properly in the UK, incredible value and knocks anything from Linn/naim into a cocked hat.

Thanks Jackal, I've got the Dynavector P75 MK111 phono stage on demo and that certainly punches way above its weight, by far my preferred phono stage

I've got the old Dynavector HX 1.2 in my set up.....awesome but of kit.

[StuH]

JayEll said:

Thanks StuH.
I'm so chuffed bud. I've never had anything like it before. The best system prior to this was a 50" pioneer with an Arcam Solo Movie, paired with Totem 5.1 speakers. So was a massive upgrade.
The building itself was knackered, and (before we moved in) was a 2 bed bungalow that was being rented out on the land. We took it to the ground pretty much and rebuilt. New roof (to do away with the loft), re-insulated, new windows/doors (had to be custom made as it was originally a cattle shed c.100years ago). Had new steels made to reinforce everything. Budget was £50k for all works and cinema.
Cinema came in around £40k (oops). Net bill came in at £100k.

Ouch! How did you get that approved by the wife?!

[JayEll]

StuH said:

Ouch! How did you get that approved by the wife?!

haha .. it was all her idea. shock, i know. ok, so she didn't exactly give approval for THAT much spend. but she trusted me with how good it would turn out. i had just bought her dream house, so she was cool. i do sometimes think about what i could have bought with that, car wise.. but when you're in there, either watching a film, playing XBox with the kids, or having a full-on party, you realise it was worth it. i've even gone as far as having a big party in there, and employed two 18y/o barmaids. best night so far down there

[StuH]

JayEll said:

StuH said:

Ouch! How did you get that approved by the wife?!

haha .. it was all her idea. shock, i know. ok, so she didn't exactly give approval for THAT much spend. but she trusted me with how good it would turn out. i had just bought her dream house, so she was cool. i do sometimes think about what i could have bought with that, car wise.. but when you're in there, either watching a film, playing XBox with the kids, or having a full-on party, you realise it was worth it. i've even gone as far as having a big party in there, and employed two 18y/o barmaids. best night so far down there

Well in that case congrats to both of you - Looks like loads of fun - I shall show the pics to my Mrs as I sow the seeds of a new building project idea

[jackal]

Cheib said:

Vipers1 said:

jackal said:

Nice one Vipers, best of luck with the new venture ! Looks like a really nice location.

It's a shame that you don't do the Dynavector electronics as well. Someone needs to really push these properly in the UK, incredible value and knocks anything from Linn/naim into a cocked hat.

Thanks Jackal, I've got the Dynavector P75 MK111 phono stage on demo and that certainly punches way above its weight, by far my preferred phono stage

I've got the old Dynavector HX 1.2 in my set up.....awesome but of kit.

Used to run the mkii myself ... Cracking amp.

[Los Endos]

Linn LP 12
Qnap
Linn Klimax Renew DS
Linn Klimax Kontrol - Anniversary
Linn Tunebox
Linn LK140 x 3 Power Amps
Linn Klout Power Amp
Linn Keltiks - Aktiv
All Linn Silver Inter Connects

What does it sound like ?
Like you your either in the Studio or at the gig, but in most cases very loud and deep :-)
In other words bloody fantastic !

[Cheib]

jackal said:

Cheib said:

Vipers1 said:

jackal said:

Nice one Vipers, best of luck with the new venture ! Looks like a really nice location.

It's a shame that you don't do the Dynavector electronics as well. Someone needs to really push these properly in the UK, incredible value and knocks anything from Linn/naim into a cocked hat.

Thanks Jackal, I've got the Dynavector P75 MK111 phono stage on demo and that certainly punches way above its weight, by far my preferred phono stage

I've got the old Dynavector HX 1.2 in my set up.....awesome but of kit.

Used to run the mkii myself ... Cracking amp.

Still is! I use it to drive my B&W 802D's. Had it six or seven years now, at the time there was nothing else that came close to it for the money.